This award-winning documentary, directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand - the noted environmentalist, journalist, and photographer, pivots around the relationship between the Earth's oceans and the entire planet's ecosystem...This incredible film shows How the Extinction of One Species Creates A Chain Reaction, Changing the Chemistry and biodiversity in the Seas creating Global Warming, Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. How Industrial Civilization Is Destroying The World Around It. The Impacts and Consequences. http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv/planet-ocean

This award-winning documentary, directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand - the noted environmentalist, journalist, and photographer, pivots around the relationship between the Earth's oceans and the entire planet's ecosystem...This incredible film shows How the Extinction of One Species Creates A Chain Reaction, Changing the Chemistry and biodiversity in the Seas creating Global Warming, Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. How Industrial Civilization Is Destroying The World Around It. The Impacts and Consequences. http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv/planet-ocean

Summit County Citizens Voice, January 30, 2015▶FIVE YEARS ON: STUDY FINDS MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF OIL FROM DEEPWATER HORIZON DISASTER BURIED IN GULF OF MEXICO. Five years after BP’s failed Deepwater Horizon drill rig spewed 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, a significant amount of that oil remains buried in seafloor sediments. A new study by a Florida State University researcher estimates that about 6 to 10 million gallons of oil are still there, perhaps decomposing slowly, but probably affecting Gulf ecosystems. “This is going to affect the Gulf for years to come,” said researcher Jeff Chanton. “Fish will likely ingest contaminants because worms ingest the sediment, and fish eat the worms. It’s a conduit for contamination into the food web,” he said sedimentshttp://summitcountyvoice.com/2015/01/30/study-finds-massive-amounts-of-oil-from-deepwater-horizon-disaster-buried-in-gulf-of-mexico-sediments/

▶ SCIENTISTS DISCOVER HUGE 'BATHTUB RING' OF OIL ON SEA FLOOR FROM BP SPILLScientists revealed more damage from the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast. And Kara Lankford, director of Ocean Conservancy’s Gulf Restoration, slammed BP for attempting to downplay the spill's effects on the area's ecosystem. The study by David Valentine, the chief scientist on the federal damage assessment research ships, estimates that about 10 million gallons of oil coagulated on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico around the damaged Deepwater Horizons oil rig.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/27/gulf-oil-spill-bathtub-ring_n_6056348.html

Project World Awareness, September 07, 2014 ▶ COREXIT DISPERSENT USED WITH BP DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL DISASTER: LIFE ON THIS EARTH JUST CHANGED ... THE NORTH ATLANTIC CURRENT IS GONE -The entire ‘river of warm water’ that flows from the Caribbean to the edges of Western Europe is dying due to the Corexit that the Obama Administration allowed BP to use to hide the scale of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The approximately two million gallons of Corexit, plus several million gallons of other dispersants, have caused the over two hundred million gallons of crude oil, that has gushed for months from the BP wellhead and nearby sites, to mostly sink to the bottom of the ocean. This has helped to effectively hide much of the oil, with the hopes that BP can seriously reduce the mandated federal fines from the oil disaster. However, there is no current way to effectively ‘clean up’ the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, which is about half covered in crude oil. Additionally, the oil has flowed up the East Coast of America and into the North Atlantic Ocean. It is likely, based on numerous reports, that the oil is still flowing in massive amounts from multiple places on the seabed floor. This effectively means, that even if we had the technology in place to somehow clean up the free flowing thick crude oil deep in the ocean, it would likely not be enough to reverse the damage to the Thermohaline Circulation System in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) began on 20 April 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It claimed eleven lives and is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, an estimated 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previously largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill. Following the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a sea-floor oil gusher flowed for 87 days, until it was capped on 15 July 2010. The total discharge has been estimated at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zGFvzMMO9w

Houston Chronicle, November 19, 2014▶ SCIENTIST ALARMED AT SEA TURTLE'S SUDDEN DECLINE IN GULF. Scientific research presented on the Kemp's ridley raised the possibility that the 2010 BP oil spill, the largest in U.S. history, might have contributed to the declines of sea turtle nests in 2013 and 2014, which have alarmed scientists. [...] experts outlined other factors that may be harming the turtles, such as a die-off of the creatures the turtles eat, expanding dead zones where oxygen is so scant that almost nothing can survive, pesticide runoff and other chemicals dumped in the Gulf. http://www.chron.com/news/science-environment/article/Signs-grow-of-oil-spill-effect-on-turtles-5903833.php

The dispersant Corexit 9580 was considered and tried but was not used for shore clean-up due largely to concerns about toxicity. According to the booklet Shoreline Treatment Techniques published in 1993 by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, while it effectively assisted in clean-up, "It had not been tested, scientific data on its toxicity were either thin or incomplete, and it had operational problems. In addition, public acceptance of a new, widespread chemical treatment was lacking. To landowners, fishing groups, and conservation organizations, the idea of dumping chemicals on hundreds of miles of shorelines that had just been oiled seemed much too risky - especially when there were other alternatives."

According to a report by David Kirby for TakePart, the main component of the Corexit formulation used during cleanup, 2-butoxyethanol, was identified as "one of the agents that caused liver, kidney, lung, nervous system, and blood disorders among cleanup crews in Alaska following the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

Boulder Weekly, March 13, 2014▶ AMERICA'S DIRTIEST SECRET:The oil and gas industry’s contamination problems are so large, they have been deemed impossible to prevent or clean up by both industry and government. An unimaginable tonnage of contamination is being placed into our environment every year thanks to lax regulation of exploration and production wasteshttp://www.boulderweekly.com/article-12516-americarss-dirtiest-secret.html

BP was banned from preforming any work in the US in 2012 and now the suspension has been lifted. They are back in the oil game. They had to pay a $4.5 billion fine, admit to lying about the damages, plead guilty, and now they are back in business. Their incident caused the death of 11 workers and the destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. Their attempts to make it better were pathetic. It is interesting how people can put a dollar value to the damage and death of people and a huge mass of water and fish population.

This was a huge example of poor corporate social responsibility and the damages are still taking its toll. Reading about the research on how the fish and sea creatures are still being affected 5 years later. The response that the BP representatives are giving in respect to the research on how the fish's hearts are being affected just shows that they are still not practicing good corporate social responsibility and it is sad to see how little a company will take care for their mistakes and the world they live in.

New Scientist, April16, 2015▶ MYSTERY BLOB IN THE PACIFIC MESSES UP US WEATHER AND ECOSYSTEMS.An unusual threat is looming off the Pacific coast of North America from Juneau in Alaska to Baja California. Now roughly 2000 kilometres wide and 100 metres deep, a mass of warm water that scientists are calling "the blob" has lingered off the coast for a year and a half and has set temperature records, with waters between 1 °C and 4 °C warmer than normal. The blob has changed water-circulation patterns, affected inland weather and reshuffled ecosystems at sea. fishermen and officials around Alaska reported sightings of species found in more temperate or even tropical waters, including skipjack tuna, thresher sharks and sunfish. Other marine species showed up thousands of kilometres north of their normal ranges, including pygmy killer whales and tropical species of copepods – tiny crustaceans that are key to marine food webs. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27362-mystery-blob-in-the-pacific-messes-up-us-weather-and-ecosystems.html#.VTFwCWZQW6A

Climate Progress, June 10, 2014-▶ A DUSTY GREENLAND IS SPEEDING UP GLACIAL MELT.

A paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience suggests that dust particles embedded in Greenland’s massive ice sheet are gathering more heat than the otherwise white, reflective surface would and causing melting to accelerate. The scientists write that “recent warming in the Arctic has induced an earlier disappearance of the seasonal snow cover, uncovering large areas of bare soil and thus enhancing dust erosion.”

Dust absorbs the sunlight and re-radiates it as heat. This causes earlier snowmelt that in turn exposes ice beneath the snow sooner than otherwise would have been expected — creating a feedback loop.

Mashable, March 16 2014-▶ NEW STUDY: GREENLAND MELTING IS MORE PERVASIVE THAN THOUGHT, ADDING TO SEA LEVEL FEARS. “Nature is changing faster than expected and seems to respond much stronger than expected to small fluctuations,” he said. “This also means that predictions of future sea level rise need to be revised.”http://mashable.com/2014/03/16/greenland-ice-melt-sea-level-rise/

August 01, 2013 Mongabay-▶ CLIMATE COULD WARM MORE RAPIDLY THAN ANY TIME IN THE LAST 65 MILLION YEARSAccording to a new review of 27 climate models, scientists say the global climate is likely to experience a warmth as great as any in the last 65 million years, only much, much faster...http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0801-hance-climate-pace.html

-▶ THOUSANDS OF SEA LION PUPS DEAD FROM STARVATION : NOT ENOUGH FISH IN THE SEA. When the sea lions converged on this most westerly of southern California’s Channel Islands in May 2012, as they do every spring, there was no hint of anything amiss. A year later, thousands of pups – perhaps as many as 70 percent of the newborns – were dead. The struggle to survive led desperate pups from their sandy nursery into the churning, dangerous sea, long before they were ready. Between January and June, five rescue centers along the southern California coast, from Santa Barbara to San Diego, took in more than 1,500 stranded pups – five times more than normal... http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/island-sea-lion-pupdate/

Earth Policy Institute-▶ OVERFISHING THREATENS CRITICAL LINK IN THE FOOD CHAINThe fish near the bottom of the aquatic food chain are often overlooked, but they are vital to healthy oceans and estuaries. Collectively known as forage fish, these species—including sardines, anchovies, herrings, and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill—feed on plankton and become food themselves for larger fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.http://worldfoodsecurity.blogspot.com/2013/01/overfishing-threatens-critical-link-in.html

BBC News, November 23, 2014-▶ PERU INVESTIGATES DEATHS OF 500 SEA LIONS ON NORTH COAST -The local governor has accused fishermen of poisoning the mammals, which usually come close to the shore looking for food. But Peruvian environmental police are looking into other possible causes for the deaths, including disease and the accidental ingestion of plastic.

Its sad that so many pups died. But also reading that they took in so many pups to feed and give them temporary homes. But when you have to put them back in the sea would they know how to get food? Also would there still be fish for them to eat?

A GREENHOUSE GAS 20 TIMES MORE POTENT THAN CARBON DIOXIDE - have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.... it’s strongly reminiscent of what is probably the worst possible climate scenario imaginable, a feedback loop so humongous and destructive that it would lead to runaway warming that makes today's runaway warming look tame by comparison. The last time this happened, it poisoned 90 percent of all life on earth with hydrogen sulfide gas, in a process described by paleontologist Peter Ward as "life killing itself off."...http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/vast-methane-plumes-seen-in-arctic-ocean-as-sea-ice-retreats-6276278.html

▶ AN ALARMING INSIGHT INTO OUR MELTING ICE GLACIERS AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR OUR PLANET AND YOU.For the First Time in Human History We are Witnessing an Unprecedented Change to our Environment and Planet. Ice is far more sensitive to temperature changes than we thought and ice is melting twice as fast as a decade ago.

Yale Environment 360, October 20, 2014▶ DRIVE TO MINE THE DEEP SEA RAISES CONCERNS OVER IMPACTS.Armed with new high-tech equipment, mining companies are targeting vast areas of the deep ocean for mineral extraction. But with few regulations in place, critics fear such development could threaten seabed ecosystems that scientists say are only now being fully understood. http://e360.yale.edu/feature/drive_to_mine_the_deep_sea_raises_concerns_over_impacts/2818/

Summit Voice, October 7, 2014-▶ REPORT WARNS AGAINST UNSUSTAINABLE EXPLOITATION OF DEEP OCEAN RESOURCES.Scientists are warning against unchecked exploitation of deep ocean resources in the coming decades, saying that the lack of a regulatory framework for areas outside territorial waters opens the door for unsustainable development. The deep sea is important to many critical processes that affect the Earth’s climate, including acting as a “sink” for greenhouse gases – helping offset the growing amounts of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. It also regenerates nutrients through upwelling that fuel the marine food web in productive coastal systems such as the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Chile and others. Increasingly, fishing and mining industries are going deeper and deeper into the oceans to extract natural resources.http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/10/07/environment-report-warns-against-unsustainable-exploitation-of-deep-ocean-resources/

BBC News, February 17, 2014▶ DEEP SEA MINING MUST RESPONSIBLY RESPECT ECOSYSTEMS.Scientists call for a "new stewardship" of the deep sea. Scientists have made an impassioned plea for humanity to pause and think before making a headlong rush to exploit the deep sea. The researchers said the oceans' lowest reaches had untold riches that could benefit mankind enormously, but not if the harvesting were done destructivelyhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25638838

PRI Living On Earth, June 10, 2014▶ DEEP SEABED MINING IS NEW, LIGHTLY REGULATED AND RISK DEVASTATING DEEP, UNKNOWN OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS. - AN EXPERIMENT THAT COULD GO VERY WRONG. “We all know that mining on land has all sorts of environmental impacts. It’s very difficult to contain mine tailings, even on land. In the ocean, which, of course, is a fluid environment with all these currents, we can expect widespread pollution.” ...We can expect other ill effects, too — everything from smothering of deep sea creatures with sediment to light pollution, which in the deep sea will have an impact on creatures that have evolved to live in dark environments. Greenpeace is calling for protection measures to be put in place now, before the “experiment” begins.http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-06-10/deep-seabed-mining-new-and-lightly-regulated-ecological-experiment

Norwegian oil giant Statoil has a permit to drill in the deep waters off the beautiful west coast of Northland. It is an area of outstanding beauty, a migratory path for whales, the home of many Maori tribal groups and a paradise for surfers. Yet, this summer Statoil plans to begin seismic testing - a process of firing loud sonic explosions through the ocean - as a first step towards dangerous deepwater drilling, if they find oil. The catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico showed us the risks of deep sea drilling. And it showed that the price of an accident is borne by the wildlife, coastal communities and economy. New Zealand doesn’t need to take this risk.http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/take-action/Take-action-online/Statoil_Northland/

These Mega Corporations Operate With Little or No Regulation or Oversight and Are Not Held To Account For the Destruction, They answer to no government or society for their ecocidal activities left behind in their wake. They throw big money around to the corrupt, innocent and the ignorant until it is too late, the contract has been signed, This is Corporate Ecocide At It's Worst and Must Be Reigned For The Sake of Life in both our oceans, forests and wetlands.

Project World Awareness, September 07, 2014 ▶ LIFE ON THIS EARTH JUST CHANGED ... THE NORTH ATLANTIC CURRENT IS GONE. The entire ‘river of warm water’ that flows from the Caribbean to the edges of Western Europe is dying due to the Corexit that the Obama Administration allowed BP to use to hide the scale of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster. The approximately two million gallons of Corexit, plus several million gallons of other dispersants, have caused the over two hundred million gallons of crude oil, that has gushed for months from the BP wellhead and nearby sites, to mostly sink to the bottom of the ocean. This has helped to effectively hide much of the oil, with the hopes that BP can seriously reduce the mandated federal fines from the oil disaster. However, there is no current way to effectively ‘clean up’ the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, which is about half covered in crude oil. Additionally, the oil has flowed up the East Coast of America and into the North Atlantic Ocean. It is likely, based on numerous reports, that the oil is still flowing in massive amounts from multiple places on the seabed floor. This effectively means, that even if we had the technology in place to somehow clean up the free flowing thick crude oil deep in the ocean, it would likely not be enough to reverse the damage to the Thermohaline Circulation System in the Atlantic Ocean.http://www.projectworldawareness.com/2010/09/life-on-this-earth-just-changed-the-north-atlantic-current-is-gone/

Rewire, February 26, 2014▶ FRACK DRILLING WASTE BEING DUMPED INTO OCEAN OFF CALIFORNIA COAST -- WITH LEGAL PERMIT !!Fracking wastewater contains more than just the chemicals used by oil and gas companies to break up the rocks, including toxic substances like methanol, benzene, naphthalene, and trimethylbenzene. It can also include nasties that it picks up from those deep rock formations, including lead and arsenic. And while safely disposing of such substances isn't easy in the best of situations, ocean disposal poses special risks for those who play in, live near, or eat fish from the sea.http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/petroleum/fracking-waste-is-being-dumped-into-the-ocean-off-californias-coast.html

DERELICT FISHING NETS HAVE TURNED THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA INTO A DEATH TRAP. Each year, at least 640,000 tonnes of nets and other fishing gear goes overboard and never comes back. But just because it’s lost to the sea doesn’t mean that derelict gear stops doing its jobs. The lobster pots, crab traps and dense thickets of nets that litter the sea bottom keep snaring fish and other animals for years or even decades after they go missing. It’s impossible to estimate how many marine animals are killed each year by “ghost fishing,” as the problem is known. However, the mosaic of local reports suggests staggering numbers—many of them of commercially valuable or endangered species. In Puget Sound, ghost gear is thought to kill more 3.5 million animals a year, including nearly 25 seals, porpoises and other marine mammals a week.http://qz.com/247942/derelict-fishing-nets-have-turned-the-bottom-of-the-sea-into-a-death-trap-2/

Wildlife Extra News- ▶ OCEAN DEBRIS FOUND TO HAVE IMPACTED A STAGGERING 700 MARINE SPECIES.Researchers at Plymouth University found evidence of 44,000 animals and organisms becoming entangled in, or swallowing debris, from reports recorded from across the globe. Plastic accounted for nearly 92 per cent of cases, and 17 per cent of all species involved were found to be threatened or near threatened on the IUCN Red List, including the Hawaiian monk seal, the loggerhead turtle and sooty shearwaterhttp://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/marine-debris-015.html

- ▶ MORE THAN 8km OF FISHING LINE RECOVERED FROM SWAN AND CANNING RIVES IN PERTH, AUSTRALIA "It would have otherwise ended up in the Swan and Canning estuary system, could have ended up entangling some of our wildlife, some of our dolphins, some of our black swans, as we've often seen happening over the last 12 months." Since 2008, five dolphins had been found caught in fishing line, with four of the animals dying."That is a horrific way for any creature to die, it is a very slow and painful death, and that can be caused by any discarded fishing line," ... A lot of the entanglement problems that we have seen with our wildlife, fishing line is in particular quite a problem, in fact fishing line can take up to 600 years to break down if it's just left in the environment."

Conservation Magazine, May 09, 2014▶ JUST $200 PER FISHING VESSEL COULD SAVE THOUSANDS OF ALBATROSSES FROM INDUSTRIAL FISHING GEAR.The commercial fisheries aren’t going to stop their business for the seabirds. it’s all too easy for a seabird to get caught up in the fishing gear that trails behind a fishing boat, and when they do, it’s usually fatal. In 2004-2005, an estimated 15,500 birds were killed that way off of South Africa. Pelagic albatrosses and petrels are particularly hard-hit, http://conservationmagazine.org/2014/05/just-200-per-fishing-vessel-could-save-thousands-of-albatrosses/

-▶ STARVING POLAR BEARSPolar Bears have long been the poster species for the problem of climate change. But a new paper in Conservation Letters argues that supplemental feeding may be necessary to prevent polar bear populations from going extinct. Polar bear expert Andrew Derocher from the University of Alberta joins Host Steve Curwood to discuss how we can save the largest bear on the planet. http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=13-P13-00007&segmentID=2

UNESCO, February 22, 2012-▶ MARINE SCIENTIST ALARMED ABOUT INCREASING THREAT TO OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS. In the last 30 years, coastal resources such as mangroves, coral reefs and fishery resources have become depleted on a large scale. For example, more than 60 per cent of Asia’s mangroves have already been converted to aquaculture farms (ESCAP and ADB, 2000). The region is losing its resource bases to support people’s livelihoods and sustain future economic development. http://www.unescobkk.org/news/article/marine-scientists-alarmed-about-increasing-threats-to-ocean-ecosystems/

FRISCO — Rapid climate change in the Arctic is putting enormous pressure on ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and the fundamental way of life of indigenous Arctic peoples, scientists said in a major new report.

“An entire bio-climatic zone, the high Arctic, may disappear. Polar bears and the other highly adapted organisms cannot move further north, so they may go extinct. We risk losing several species forever,” said Hans Meltofte of Aarhus University, chief scientist of the report.

▶ SHEDDING LIGHT ON STAGGERING BY-CATCH PROBLEM IN U.S. FISHERIES. According to a new Oceana report, United States fisheries discard about 17 percent to 22 percent of everything they catch every year. That amounts to a whopping 2 billion pounds of annual by-catch -- injured and dead fish and other marine animals unintentionally caught by fishermen and then thrown overboard. This includes endangered creatures like whales and sharks, as well as commercially viable fish that may have been too young or too damaged to bring to port.http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/Bycatch_Report_FINAL.pdf

▶ NETS THAT SAVE FISH. Bycatch can result in overfishing, reduces the populations of species that might already be endangered and, on the largest scale, interrupts food chains and damages whole ecosystems http://ensia.com/features/nets-that-save-fish/

▶ NEW OCEANA REPORT UNVEILS WASTED CASH IN U.S. FISHERIES.“The staggering amount of fish thrown away every year in the U.S. represents a real loss, both to fishermen and the future resilience of ocean ecosystems. ” Bycatch, the capture and waste of non-target fish and ocean wildlife, costs fishermen and the marine environment in more ways than one. In addition to being ecologically wasteful, discarding fish is akin to throwing money into the ocean. Oceana's newly released report spotlights the economic losses from bycatch—an amount that could reach a staggering $1 billion annually. http://oceana.org/en/blog/2014/06/new-oceana-report-unveils-wasted-cash-in-us-fisheries

▶ RESPONSE TEAM FREES HUMPBACK WHALE FROM CRAB TRAPSEntanglement in fishing gear—“bycatch,” as it is called in the marine community—is a common problem for these whales, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which lists bycatch as one of several reasons why humpback whales are still on the Endangered Species List.http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/response-team-frees-humpback-whale-from-crab-trap/

Ten thousand years ago, humans made the shift on land from hunting and gathering to farming. Now the same transformation is taking place at sea....

Many of today’s coastal fish farms have decimated habitat and spread disease into local fish populations. Making matters worse, fish farms represent a net drain on populations of wild fish, which are often caught just so they can be ground into feed for salmon and other species.

Despite these concerns, a shift is underway. Some members of the environmental community are concluding that widespread aquaculture must be pursued if we are to save the oceans and feed the planet. Aquaculture production must double by 2050 just to keep up with per capita demand. But merely scaling up current methods would only exacerbate the problems.

In other words, the world needs new, sustainable aquaculture practices, and it needs them fast. It took 10,000 years for domestic agriculture to transform the land, but viable ocean farming schemes must be developed in one one-hundredth of that time if they are to forestall the oceans’ demise. This urgency is spurring some leading environmentalists and scientists to lend their knowledge and support, instead of their opposition. In a recent lecture, the renowned marine ecologist Jeremy Jackson discussed the threat of overfishing and announced, “the most important scientific challenge we now face is how to make aquaculture ecologically sustainable.”...http://conservationmagazine.org/2009/04/taming-the-blue-frontier/

The Scotsman, April 20, 2014 ▶ SALMON FARM 'KILLING OFF WILD STOCK' "...since 1989 (we have known) that the collapse of sea trout populations in West Highland Scotland was being driven by the large numbers of sea lice associated with the cage rearing of salmon. “It is a problem which continues to get worse and also greatly depletes salmon populations in fjordic systems. “Efforts to reduce sea louse numbers to levels which do not threaten the wild fish have failed dismally, despite the large-scale use of dangerous chemicals which ultimately threaten the valuable lobster, prawn and crab fisheries of the Highlands and Islands. “Add to this assault on sea trout and salmon populations the effects of bacterial and virus disease and the widely reported problem of genetic introgression. Healthy wild sea trout and salmon populations cannot exist in the presence of the cage-reared salmon.” http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/salmon-farms-killing-off-wild-stock-1-3382113

-▶ MARINE SCIENTIST ALARMED ABOUT INCREASING THREAT TO OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS.In the last 30 years, coastal resources such as mangroves, coral reefs and fishery resources have become depleted on a large scale. For example, more than 60 per cent of Asia’s mangroves have already been converted to aquaculture farms (ESCAP and ADB, 2000). The region is losing its resource bases to support people’s livelihoods and sustain future economic development. http://www.unescobkk.org/news/article/marine-scientists-alarmed-about-increasing-threats-to-ocean-ecosystems/

Farmed salmon, that ubiquitous pink fish decorated with ribbons of fat, can thank the forage fish of the southern Pacific ocean – like anchovy and jack mackerel – for their calorie-rich diet. Indeed, more than 5 pounds of jack mackerel typically can go towards raising one pound of farmed salmon. But that food supply – and the ocean ecosystem that supports it — may be in peril, according to a new report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. According to scientists the ICIJ spoke to, "supertrawler" fishing vessels from Asia, Europe and Latin America have contributed to a 63 percent decline in jack mackerel stocks since 2006. At the current rate of overfishing, the world's stock of jack mackerel, which is largely located off the coast of Chile, could collapse soon.

Quartz, July 21, 2014 ▶ AMERICA CATCHES SOME OF THE WORLD'S BEST SALMON BUT EATS SOME OF THE WORST. THE CRAZY EXPORT, IMPORT BUSINESS OF WILD FISHInstead of demanding their own Pacific salmon, Americans are mostly eating the blander-tasting, farmed Atlantic variety imported from countries like Norway and Chile, or other farmed fish from China. The crazy export, re-import business of wild fishhttp://qz.com/234197/america-catches-some-of-the-worlds-best-salmon-but-eats-some-of-the-worst/

Truthout, December 07, 2014- ▶ ENCLOSING THE AQUATIC COMMONS IN BRAZIL - AQUACULTURE: THE PARTITIONING OF BRAZIL'S OCEAN AND RIVERS THREATENS SMALL-SCALE FISHING FAMILIES. The federal government has implemented a plan for privatizing water resources that can then be used by private companies for fish farming, and its objective is to produce 20 million tons of fish annually through aquaculture. Privatizing the water in this way enables companies to intensively produce one type of fish in an area, without the fish having to compete with other species for food and space. Raising fish through aquaculture, however, requires the use of countless chemicals and has led to the displacement of small-scale fishermen and women. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27824-the-partitioning-of-brazil-s-ocean-and-rivers-threatens-small-scale-fishing-families

Energy Live News, July 01, 2014-▶ SEAFOOD "COULD BE COOKED BY CLIMATE CHANGE"We could reach a point where governments battle it out over dwindling pockets of seafood. Big predators such as tuna could move and aquacultures – which can farm carnivorous species such as salmon – need fish meal and if these smaller fish move there could be a real “price hike”.

EMagazine.com, May 1, 2013▶ FREE RANGE FISH: THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROMISE OF OPEN OCEAN FISH FARMS? open ocean fish farms may be the solution to a whole range of environmental problems. Not the crowded, close-to-shore pens where fish are trapped like caged chickens, requiring doses of antibiotics which leak, along with the concentrated wastes, into surrounding water. But submersible net pens, more than 150 feet apart, where ocean currents disperse waste, and fish swim and live in the closest possible approximation to their natural habitat. Free-range fish. - See more at: http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/free-range-fish/

Fish Swim Freely In the Ocean Playing A Crucial role in the natural bio ecosystem that supports life on our planet. When the ocean is out of balance, so is the planet...playing a major part in climate change.

Factory-Farming Fish in cramped, almost motionless quarters cannot be healthy and breeds a more, bigger, faster profit mentality as great expense to both the health of humans, fish and environment.

Fed with either depleted ocean wild stock or gmo soy unnatural foods, they are not bred by natural selection as they would in the wild but highly inbred in captivity. Just as hatchery bred fish was not the answer for depleted wild salmon runs and the dam devastations , neither is this human interference with natural selection for the food we consume.. They also are fed antibiotics and require pesticides for lice that must be used when raised in confined cages in large quantities which the fish ingest and we eat.

This is another huge, corporate animal corporate factory farming business where the bottom-line and profits drives decisions and, as with the mega pig and chicken factory farms, where profits override the welfare and health of the animals "produced" for human consumption, here we have NO regulations, NO Oversight, NO labeling in place.

So... what are we eating? Have we simply sacrificed our oceans for another huge global corporate business that writes its' own laws and keeps fed on the glowing public relations wheel until we have completely ravaged the environment, nature, and her natural, crucial biodiversity to the point of extinction and humans get sicker and sicker along with the planet? Deforestation, resource extractions, poisoning of our soils, water and food, massive extinction of our animals and wildlife...all for the bottom line...have created a massive imbalance in our biosphere producing climate change..remember this. Perhaps, this time, we can get ahead of the game and create a truly sustainable, legal value-based practice that is for the good of all species on this planet, not just for Wall Street @pdjmoo

IOL.co.za, June 04, 2014-▶ SHARK MEAT WORSE THAN ITS BITE. Top Predators absorb all the toxins as they move up the food chain. Recent meat samples from at least three species of shark had levels of arsenic, mercury and other toxic compounds way above the recommended food safety levels.

-▶ WHY SARDINES MATTER - CRITICAL MARINE SPECIES FOOD SOURCE IN STEEP DECLINE The Pacific coast of North America supports one of the most vibrant and diverse marine ecosystems on Earth, largely because of the presence of thick schools of small prey fish such as Pacific sardines.

'Global evolution' may not be based upon the occurance of natural selection. If it is based upon man's ignorance of keeping a necessary balance in nature, will we be in time to correct or rebalance it? From this piece, Why Sardines Matter: Critical Ecosystem Food Source in Steep Decline, one can only wonder if this is possible and how we could be in time to save disappearing species.

▶ AN ALARMING INSIGHT INTO OUR MELTING ICE GLACIERS AND WHAT THIS MEANS FOR OUR PLANET AND YOU. For the First Time in Human History We are Witnessing an Unprecedented Change to our Environment and Planet. Ice is far more sensitive to temperature changes than we thought and ice is melting twice as fast as a decade ago...

NASA, November 12, 2014▶ VIDEO: A NASA PERSPECTIVE: FOUR DECADES OF SEA ICE LOSS FROM SPACE : THE FUTURE. Scientists have used satellites to observe the retreat of Arctic sea ice from above. But the bigger challenge – now and in the coming years – is understanding what is happening below.The retreat of Arctic sea ice could have significant implications for ocean circulation, atmospheric circulation and even weather patterns in the continental U.S. and other populated areas. http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-perspective-four-decades-of-sea-ice-from-space-the-future/

Planet Earth OnLine, January 13, 2014▶ GLACIER'S RETREAT IS NOW IRREVERSIBLE - SCIENTISTSPine Island Glacier, the largest single contributor to sea-level rise in Antarctica, has started shrinking, say scientists.Pine Island glacier. The work, published in Nature Climate Change, shows the glacier's retreat may have begun an irreversible process that could see the amount of water it is adding to the ocean increase five-fold...http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1588&cookieConsent=A

Truthout, December 26, 2013▶ CLIMATE CHANGE 2013: WHERE WE ARE NOW - NOT WHAT YOU THINK - To prevent increasingly dangerous climate change, the public and our leaders must be convinced to act decisively and robustly. As the latest data show, changes are occurring more quickly than scientists have ever predicted, and simple emissions reductions are no longer the answer.http://truth-out.org/news/item/20751-climate-change-2013-where-we-are-now-not-what-you-think

Populations of fish that feed millions globally are in steep decline, and at risk of collapse. WWF’s Living Blue Planet Report takes an unprecedented look at the damage we inflict on the ocean, and outlines a way forward for its recovery. http://ocean.panda.org/

The world’s oceans—covering nearly two-thirds of the Earth’s surface, and on which much of human life depends—are under severe pressure, a new report says. Overfishing has dramatically reduced fish stocks. The thousands of tonnes of rubbish dumped in the oceans wreak havoc on marine life, while climate change is warming and acidifying them, putting them under further stress. http://ecowatch.com/2015/08/23/worlds-oceans-in-peril/

Grist, January 16, 2015-▶ WE COULD VERY WELL BE ON THE BRINK OF MARINE MASS EXTINCTION - Basically, a study out Thursday in Science looked at the sum total of apocalyptic ocean science to date, and determined that we could very well be on the brink of marine mass extinction. Why, you ask? Better question: How could we not be?

-▶ SUPER TRAWLER NETS BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD 13 JUMBO JETS - USING GPS TO SWEEP UP ALL IN IT'S PATH. In most places, the oceans have lost more than 75 per cent of their “megafauna” – large creatures such as whales, sharks, dolphins, rays and turtles. Numbers of some species – oceanic whitetip sharks; American sawfish – are down by as much as 99 per cent. For every 20 leatherback turtles in the Pacific 50 years ago, only one remainshttp://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us/p/1838791014/sea-change-the-loss-of-ocean-species-is-staggering

Gizmag, November 17, 2014-▶ GOOGLE JOINS THE EFFORT TO COMBAT OVERFISHING WITH GLOBAL FISHING WATCH. Google has partnered with SkyTruth and Oceana to produce a new tool to track global fishing activity. Known as Global Fishing Watch, the interactive web tool uses satellite data to provide detailed vessel tracking, and aims to harness the power of citizen engagement to tackle the issue of overfishing. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 90 percent of the world’s fisheries are working at peak capacity, with as much as one-third of marine fish stocks now suffering from overfishing.http://www.gizmag.com/google-overfishing-global-fishing-watch/34794/

Earth Policy Institute -▶ OVERFISHING THREATENS CRITICAL LINK IN THE FOOD CHAINThe fish near the bottom of the aquatic food chain are often overlooked, but they are vital to healthy oceans and estuaries. Collectively known as forage fish, these species—including sardines, anchovies, herrings, and shrimp-like crustaceans called krill—feed on plankton and become food themselves for larger fish, seabirds, and marine mammals.http://worldfoodsecurity.blogspot.com/2013/01/overfishing-threatens-critical-link-in.html

Summit County Citizens Voice, February 10, 2015-▶ OCEANS: NEW REPORT SAYS PIRATE FISHING STILL WIDESPREAD - In a new report to Congress, federal fisheries biologists fingered six countries as still sanctioning pirate fishing. Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nigeria, Nicaragua, and Portugal could all lose certifications from the U.S. because they aren’t doing enough to stop illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Violations include fishing in restricted areas, discarding tuna, misreported catch, and improper handling of turtle entanglement. NOAA Fisheries will work with each of the cited nations to address these activities and improve their fisheries management and enforcement practices.http://summitcountyvoice.com/2015/02/10/oceans-new-report-says-pirate-fishing-still-widespread/

DERELICT FISHING NETS HAVE TURNED THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA INTO A DEATH TRAP. Each year, at least 640,000 tonnes of nets and other fishing gear goes overboard and never comes back. But just because it’s lost to the sea doesn’t mean that derelict gear stops doing its jobs. The lobster pots, crab traps and dense thickets of nets that litter the sea bottom keep snaring fish and other animals for years or even decades after they go missing.http://qz.com/247942/derelict-fishing-nets-have-turned-the-bottom-of-the-sea-into-a-death-trap-2/

NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, December 2014- ▶ WHALE SHARKS, BIGGEST FISH IN THE OCEAN RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION FROM CORPORATE INDUSTRIAL FISHING.Commercial fishermen have known for some time that tuna, along with many other species of fish, congregate around objects drifting on the ocean surface. Fishermen often build floating structures called FADs, or fish-aggregating devices, to attract tuna to an area, allowing them to capitalize on this behavior. Using FADs makes the job of finding and encircling the tuna in the purse seine nets much more efficient.Fishermen also learned that whale sharks are so large that they naturally attract tuna, much like a FAD. This led some fishermen to deploy nets around a whale shark to capture tuna swimming beneath it. In many of the cases, the encircled whale shark was also caught in the net and injured or died. http://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/stories/2014/18_12182014_whale_shark_protection.html

March 19, 2013 -▶ DISCARDS BAN COULD IMPACT SEABIRDS POPULATION - The European Parliament recently voted to scrap the controversial discards policy, which has seen fishermen throwing thousands of edible fish and fish waste back into the sea because they have exceeded their quotas.

FEEDING FIRST THAT WHICH, IN TURN, FEEDS US. Men have got to stop raping and pillaging the precious resources of our planet to extinction, for it will ultimately lead to extinction of the human race. We depend on a healthy balanced natural world for our own health and wellbeing. The quarterly profit bottomline should drive extinction

Since the industrial revolution began, we have released 2 trillion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, and about one-third of it went into the ocean. We initially thought that the ocean taking up CO2 was a good thing – because it took it out of the atmosphere. Unfortunately, we were wrong. There has been a 30% increase in the acidity of the ocean since 1700, and we now expect that by 2100, it will have become a 100% increase. This constitutes a rate of change in ocean chemistry that is 10 times anything scientists can document over the last 50 million years.

Mongabay, December 03, 2014-▶ ANIMALS DISSOLVING DUE TO CARBON EMISSIONS.Marine snails, also known as sea butterflies, are dissolving in the Southern Seas due to anthropogenic carbon emissions, according to a new study in Nature GeoScience. Scientists have discovered that the snail's shells are being corroded away as pH levels in the ocean drop due to carbon emissions, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification. The snails in question, Limacina helicina antarctica, play a vital role in the food chain, as prey for plankton, fish, birds, and even whales. http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1203-hance-ocean-acidification-dissolving-snails.html

Phys.org, November 10, 2014 - ▶ NEW GLOBAL MAPS DETAIL HUMAN-CAUSED OCEAN ACIDIFICATIONA team of scientists has published the most comprehensive picture yet of how acidity levels vary across the world's oceans, providing a benchmark for years to come as enormous amounts of human-caused carbon emissions continue to wind up at sea.http://phys.org/news/2014-11-global-human-caused-ocean-acidification.html#jCp

BBC News - March 26, 2014-▶ HOW CLIMATE CHANGE WILL ACIDIFY THE OCEANSOff the remote eastern tip of Papua New Guinea a natural phenomenon offers an alarming glimpse into the future of the oceans, as increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere make sea water more acidic. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26746039

When reading this article i find it amazing what is going on around the world. Places like Antarctica are changing dramatically in ways people are not in control of. What used to be an icy and colder places is now deteriorating and melting. I find it scary in a way because what else is going to change as the years go by. What are the next generation of people going to be apart of or get to witnesses now that many places and things are coming closer to be extinct.

▶ CHOKING THE OCEANS WITH PLASTICThe world is awash in plastic. It’s in our cars and our carpets, we wrap it around the food we eat and virtually every other product we consume; it has become a key lubricant of globalization — but it’s choking our future in ways that most of us are barely aware. Plastics are now one of the most common pollutants of ocean waters worldwide. Pushed by winds, tides and currents, plastic particles form with other debris into large swirling glutinous accumulation zones, known to oceanographers as gyres, which comprise as much as 40 percent of the planet’s ocean surface — roughly 25 percent of the entire earth...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/opinion/choking-the-oceans-with-plastic.html

New Scientist, February 12, 2015▶ OCEANS SWALLOWED 13 MILLION TONS OF PLASTIC IN 2010.Vast floating islands of plastic are just a drop in the ocean compared with what's lurking deeper down. Between 5 and 13 million tonnes of plastic debris entered the marine environment in 2010 - and most of it is under water. What's more, without improvements in the way we manage waste, it could be 10 times as much each year by 2025... http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26958-oceans-swallowed-13-million-tonnes-of-plastic-in-2010.html

An eye-opening story about the institute’s global mission to study the effects, reality, and scale of plastic pollution around the world. The overwhelming contaminant that is secretly infiltrating all levels of sea life like a cancer... http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/plasticized/

mongabay May 07, 2013▶ MUNCHING ON MARINE PLASTIC KILLS SPERM WHALE What do children's toys, balloons, mattresses and plastic bags have in common? They can, along with more non-biodegradable pollutants, be found in the belly of a sperm whale, the topic of a new study in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

▶ FISHERMAN CATCHES MONSTER COD AND FINDS PLASTIC BOTTLE INSIDE ITS BELLY. Jess Price, conservation officer at the Sussex Wildlife Trust, said marine litter was a “huge problem” and 75% of all litter recorded in the sea was plastic. She said: “The main issue is that marine life ingests it. The problem is plastic never biodegrades, it is there forever. “If something swallows a balloon or bottle then it’s taking up space in its stomach and can cause them to starve.http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11047823.display/

WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min)Here is an informative and educational film about the environmental problem of plastic pollution inside the Oceans raising to a dangerous level to human safety and its solution. After the Japan Tsunami and the Fukushima disaster, pollution and radiation is traveling through the Pacific Ocean to the US. Oceanographers and Scientists show us how the real situation looks like. The film reveal the horrific scale of this disaster coming that nobody can see and imagine..http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/

▶ WHY ARE BRITISH FISH EATING PLASTIC? SERIOUS FOR FISH, SERIOUS FOR YOU AND OUR FOOD CHAINhttp://sco.lt/54HFsf

The Scotsman, October 13, 2014▶ SCOTLAND: OTTERS DYING EARLY BECAUSE OF POISONED SEAS

Scottish otters are only living a third of the lifespan of those on mainland Europe because of poisoned seas, a leading expert on the species has warned. Zoologist Dr Paul Yoxon said chemicals in everyday products are accumulating in fish and shellfish on which the mammals feed, weakening their immune systems.

Setting up a grand environmental showdown, a referendum initiated by the plastic bag industry to overturn California’s first-in-the-nation law that bans supermarkets and other businesses from handing out single-use plastic bags has qualified for next year’s ballot.

BBC News, May 01, 2014▶ 'RETRO RUBBISH' WASHED UP ON UK BEACHES.Campaigners have released pictures of washed-up beach litter dating back to the 1960s. More than 25 tonnes of rubbish were collected at 130 SAS-organised beach clean events across the UK this springhttp://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cornwall-27227481

▶ CRYPTIC RIVER: THE TORRENTS THAT FLOW ON THE SEABEDCryptic river: The torrents that flow on the seabed. Myriad underwater rivers criss-cross the ocean floor, some many thousands of kilometres long, tens of kilometres wide and hundreds of metres deep. They are the arteries of our planet. They shunt sediments into the deep, carrying with them the oxygen and nutrients that allow life to thrive at great depths. They also seem to be a vital part of the world's carbon cycle, burying organic matter carried from the shore.http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129570.700-cryptic-river-the-torrents-that-flow-on-the-seabed.html#.Uw1F4V5kJK4

UNESCO, February 22, 2012-▶ MARINE SCIENTIST ALARMED ABOUT INCREASING THREAT TO OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS.In the last 30 years, coastal resources such as mangroves, coral reefs and fishery resources have become depleted on a large scale. For example, more than 60 per cent of Asia’s mangroves have already been converted to aquaculture farms (ESCAP and ADB, 2000). The region is losing its resource bases to support people’s livelihoods and sustain future economic development.http://www.unescobkk.org/news/article/marine-scientists-alarmed-about-increasing-threats-to-ocean-ecosystems/

Reuters, February 10, 2014-▶ OVERFISHING, POLLUTION LEAVES TURKISH WATERS BARE. HI-TECH TECHNOLOGY, BIG BUSINESS, LAX REGULATIONS DESTROYING OCEANS EVERYWHERE."Twenty years ago, you put your arm in the water you could pull out fish - there were so many," said Osman Korkmaz, a 53-year-old fisherman who has fished the Bosphorus Strait and Marmara Sea for 40 years. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-turkey-fish-idUSBREA1905B20140210

FRISCO — Rapid climate change in the Arctic is putting enormous pressure on ecosystems, threatening biodiversity and the fundamental way of life of indigenous Arctic peoples, scientists said in a major new report.

“An entire bio-climatic zone, the high Arctic, may disappear. Polar bears and the other highly adapted organisms cannot move further north, so they may go extinct. We risk losing several species forever,” said Hans Meltofte of Aarhus University, chief scientist of the report.

Climate Spectator, June 06, 2014 -▶ UN REPORT FINDS WIDESPREAD CORAL DESTRUCTION.Global warming is causing trillions of dollars of damage to coral reefs, aggravating risks to tropical small island states threatened by rising sea levels. The rise in sea levels off some islands in the Western Pacific was four times the global average, with gains of 1.2cm a year from 1993 to 2012, due to shifts in winds and currents, said the United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP). http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/6/6/science-environment/un-report-finds-widespread-coral-destruction

Dodo, November 0, 2014-▶ WHAT CORAL REEFS MEAN TO THE FUTURE OF THE OCEAN

-▶ A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS PUTS SPECIES AND PEOPLE AT RISKAt least 12% of groupers – globally-important food fish species that live on coral and rocky reefs – face extinctionhttp://sco.lt/5HdRr7

Guardian Environment, September 18, 2013

-▶ CORAL REEFS SUFFER AS THE RELENTLESS HUNT FOR SHARK FINS TAKE ITS TOLL. The rampant overfishing of sharks, often solely for their fins, is causing a damaging chain reaction that could significantly degrade coral reef systems, a decade-long Australian-led study has found. "The result of this is that the whole food chain is being thrown out of whack." ... creating a collapse of the food chain.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/19/coral-reefs-suffer-hunt-sharks

Wildlife Extra News - -▶ CLIMATE CHANGE STOPS REEF FISH DETECTING PREDATORS.Coral reef fish have been proved to lose their sense of predators as a result of too much CO2 in the water. Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is absorbed into ocean waters, where it dissolves and lowers the pH of the water.http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/reef-fish-climate-change-478.html#cr

-▶ UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS OBSERVE SURPRISING BONEFISH SPAWNING BEHAVIOR IN THE BAHAMASBonefish, also called gray ghosts, are among the most elusive and highly prized fishes sought by recreational anglers in the Florida Keys, Bahamas and similar tropical habitats around the world. Bonefish support a fishery worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, but this fishery is threatened in many areas by habitat loss and degradation, and by overfishing. Scientists are scrambling to identify and protect critical habitats and identify other ways to conserve this vital fishery. A recent study of bonefish spawning behavior in the Bahamas brings to light new information that should aid bonefish conservation efforts.Read more athttp://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113026726/university-researchers-observe-surprising-bonefish-spawning-behavior-in-the-bahamas/#Xr7m1QVDK17sgExx.99

▶ THE INUIT OF BAFFIN ISLAND: MOBILIZING AGAINST OFFSHORE OIL EXTRACTION.The north­eastern Canada 2D marine seismic survey would involve ships using air guns to blast bursts of sound into the water to study the geology below the ocean floor to be sold to oil and gas companies and used to help locate hydrocarbon deposits. Concerns with the impact of seismic surveys on marine mammals, including seals, whales, and walruses, have been expressed by Indigenous peoples and conservationists worldwide.https://intercontinentalcry.org/call-south-baffin-island-25545/

We don't need to turn the ocean into a blast zone for our energy needs. Seismic airguns create intense, repetitive booms that will drown out the dolphins' songs, deafening, injuring, or even killing the animals close to the blasts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWaoeXvLfzs

Green Prophet, April 11, 2014

▶ WHY OIL AND GAS COMPANIES (AND THE NAVY) SHOULD BUY WHALES HEARING AIDS.Whales, the earth’s largest marine mammals, have had more than their share of ecological problems in all parts of the world’s seas and oceans. One of their biggest risks is noise in marine habitats caused by drilling for oil and gas.

HuffPost, Generation Change, December 12, 2014▶ BIG OIL SHATTERS "UNICORNS OF THE SEA""The Unicorns of the Sea" -- the spiral-toothed male Arctic Narwhal whales -- are in big trouble. The Canadian government just granted oil corporations the rights to search for drilling sites in the Davis Strait between Baffin Island and Greenland. That means millions of sea creatures will be killed by incessant sonic booms as Big Oil scavenges for more heat-trapping gases. This deranged ecocide risks killing 90 percent of all the remaining Narwhals on our planet. Every 10 seconds, non-stop for a couple of months, sonic explosions at 252 decibels will shatter eardrums of all sea creatures. It's time to protect the Arctic, not plunder it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-reese-halter/big-oil-shatters-unicorns_b_6312582.html

▶ WHALES FLEE FROM MILITARY SONAR LEADING TO MASS STRANDINGS, RESEARCH SHOWS.Studies are missing link in puzzle that has connected naval exercises to unusual mass strandings of whales and dolphins. Beaked whales, the most common casualty of the strandings, were shown to be highly sensitive to sonar. But the research also revealed unexpectedly that blue whales, the largest animals on Earth and whose population has plummeted by 95% in the last century, also abandoned feeding and swam rapidly away from sonar noise.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/03/whales-flee-military-sonar-strandings

▶ 138,000 SPECIES UNDER THREAT AS OBAMA APPROVES GAS AND OIL EXPLORATION IN ATLANTIC. US president Barack Obama has approved a project that will open up an area off the east coast of the US to oil and gas exploration with the use of sonic cannons – which are highly damaging to marine wildlife.

The constant thumping from the cannons in the water can be heard thousands of miles away, with the physiological effects to marine wildlife unreported. There is also the risk of damaging nine of the remaining 500 north Atlantic right whales.

Katie Zimmerman, a spokesperson for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, said, “Once they can’t hear — and that’s the risk that comes with seismic testing — they are pretty much done for.”

Huffington Post Green, January 16, 2015 ▶ BIG OIL TO DESTROY THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN BIGHT. The Australian government has granted an oil company the rights to search for oil and gas in the middle of a breathtaking marine ecosystem.

JOIN MIRANDA TO KEEP DOLPHINS SINGING: STOP SEISMIC AIRGUN BLASTING IN THE ATLANTIC.Dolphins talk to each other using whistles and songs, but seismic airguns create deafening booms that will drown out the dolphins' voices—deafening, injuring, or even killing the animals close to the blastshttp://act.oceana.org/sign/stopseismic/

Official records show that the number of tankers, cargo ships and tugs transiting through the Arctic has more than doubled since 2008. Offshore oil exploration by Royal Dutch Shell and others has added to the increased industrialization. Mostly low-frequency sounds from ship engines, seismic surveys and drilling machinery overlap with and may interfere with sounds produced and received by marine mammals.http://news.yahoo.com/arctic-melts-shipping-traffic-blasts-wildlife-op-ed-191825197.html

NRDC SWITCHBOARD, April 04, 2014

▶ MILESTONE IN OCEAN NOISE FIGHT.After five years, the International Maritime Organization adopted guidelines to reduce underwater noise from commercial ships. The ocean, simply put, is an acoustic world, and marine species depend on sound for virtually everything they do to survive: feeding, finding mates, avoiding predators, maintaining social bonds, orienting themselves in the world. But noise from shipping and other human activity has radically altered their environment.http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mjasny/milestone_in_ocean_noise_fight.html

LiveScience, May 16, 2014▶ 500 REMAINING RIGHT WHALES COULD FACE THE WRONG FATE.The North Pacific and North Atlantic species, however, remain critically endangered. In fact, estimates suggest that only approximately 500 North Atlantic right whale individuals left in the world.

Ever since the depletion of the North Atlantic right whale population, these whales have struggled to recover, in part because of how long it takes them to mature and reproduce, and also because of threats they face from human activity. The characteristics that made these whales the "right" ones to hunt are now placing them in the path of other dangers. Though there is a moratorium on commercial whaling, these whales have still faced threats like injuries and fatalities from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. With the new seismic testing proposal, the situation grows even worse.http://www.livescience.com/45672-right-whale-extinction-threat.html

BBC. Natural World. A KILLER WHALE CALLED LUNAThe emotional story of a young killer whale's quest for companionship after he was separated from his family and found himself on the rugged, wild coast of Vancouver Island. The film records the human friendships he developed and the trouble this led him into. From death threats to numerous capture attempts by the government, the film-makers watched as various people tried to determine Luna's fate...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFFs9PPFiNM

▶OCEAN GRABBING BY CORPORATE FISHING FLEETS THREATENS WORLD FISHERIES. "Future generations will pay the price" for so-called ocean-grabbing, the process by which industrial global fishing fleets scoop up vast stocks of fish from protected waters to the detriment of local communities and small-scale fishing, said Olivier de Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on food. "Industrial fishing in far-flung waters may seem like the economic option, but only because fleets are able to pocket major subsidies while externalizing the costs of over-fishing and resource degradation," he said after the publication of a report that says fish account for 15% of world protein intake from animals.... http://www.france24.com/en/20121030-ocean-grabbing-threatens-worlds-fisheries-un

Greenpeace, November 04, 2014▶ EXPOSING 20 EUROPEAN FISHING VESSELS RESPONSIBLE FOR RAPING OUR OCEANS“The operators of these vessels use tricks – like changing the identity and flag of their vessels or using front companies and tax havens – to increase their access to fishing opportunities or to circumvent rules and regulations. They create comparatively little employment, while putting in jeopardy the health of our seas. EU governments must stop turning a blind eye to overfishing, remove monster boats from industrial fishing fleets and encourage low-impact alternatives.”http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/News/2014/Monster-boats-nov-2014/

Gizmag, November 17, 2014▶GOOGLE JOINS THE EFFORT TO COMBAT OVERFISHING WITH GLOBAL FISHING WATCH. Google has partnered with SkyTruth and Oceana to produce a new tool to track global fishing activity. Known as Global Fishing Watch, the interactive web tool uses satellite data to provide detailed vessel tracking, and aims to harness the power of citizen engagement to tackle the issue of overfishing. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 90 percent of the world’s fisheries are working at peak capacity, with as much as one-third of marine fish stocks now suffering from overfishing.http://www.gizmag.com/google-overfishing-global-fishing-watch/34794/

Seafood is the primary source of protein for more than one billion people - can they live without it?

We need to start thinking more about an environmentally driven market, as opposed to a commercially driven market.

Dr Maria Salta, a biological oceanographer at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, gave Al Jazeera a bleak prognosis about the state of the oceans. "It is clear that if we continue like this, in a few years time there is not going to be much left," she said of the rampant over-fishing going on across the globe, along with the overall treatment of oceans at the hands of humans. "We are losing species every day without ever knowing about them. Sometimes humans can be like a plague to the environment."

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) was established to improve our understanding of the role of the ocean at an Earth System Level and its contribution to enabling life to exist on Earth.

▶ TRAWLING: DESTRUCTIVE FISHING METHOD IS TURNING SEAFLOORS TO 'DESERTS'.Bottom trawling is a practice used by commercial fisheries around the world in which a large, heavy net is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up everything in its path. Previous research has linked trawling to significant environmental impacts, such as the harvest of large numbers of non-target species, collectively termed “bycatch,” as well as destruction of shallow seabeds. Now, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds this method is also resulting in long-term, far-reaching consequences in the deeper ocean and beyond.

Guardian Environment, February 08, 2014▶ BOTTOM TRAWLING: HOW TO EMPTY THE SEAS IN 150 YEARS.The government has refused to act against 'bottom trawling', which has turned Britain's seabed ecosystem into a wasteland. A trawler on the North Sea between Scotland and Norway. Even with modern technology, catches are just 6% of what they were 120 years ago.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/10/bottom-trawling-how-to-empty-the-seas

October 25, 2012: Our Place In The World

▶ INDUSTRIAL FISHING: SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN CLEAN. The following is the New York Times October 22, 2012 editorial. Two elements are missing from it. First, that industrial fishing is a capitalist industry driven by insatiable drive for profits. Second, that it should be phased out. Otherwise, it points to a massive problem facing anyone who cares about biodiversity and health of oceans. KN...http://forhumanliberation.blogspot.fr/2012/10/931-industrial-fishing-scraping-bottom.html

Summit Voice, October 23, 2014-▶ NEW GOVERNANCE MODEL NEEDED FOR SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES.Destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling make matters worse. Trawl nets grab any and all forms of marine life, laying waste to the ocean floor. The total area bottom trawled is nearly 150 times the area of forest that is clear cut annually around the world. As targeted fish species shrink, both industrial and small-scale fishers move on to other species, depleting them, too, until finally they are